Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make pre-application advice a compulsory service offered by local planning authorities.

The government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and Planning Performance Agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service. This is available here. Most local planning authorities will offer some form of pre-application advice service, but we have no plans to make this a mandatory function.